North America Distribution

Facts About

Purple Joe-Pye weed is a rather variable species and may hybridize with other species in the genus. The Cherokee used the ash of purple Joe-Pye weed roots as salt for flavoring foods, and the Ojibwa used a strong tea made of the root as a strengthening wash for infants.

Habitat

Forests, meadows and fields, woodlands

Characteristics

Habitat

terrestrial

New England state

Connecticut

Massachusetts

New Hampshire

Rhode Island

Vermont

Leaf type

leaves are simple (i.e., lobed or unlobed but not separated into leaflets)

Leaf arrangement

whorled: there are three or more leaves per node along the stem

Leaf blade edges

the edge of the leaf blade has teeth

Flower type in flower heads

the flower head has disk flowers only, and lacks the strap-shaped flowers

var.purpureum

Native to North America?

Sometimes Confused With

stems usually anthocyanic throughout, though often green in deep shade and sometimes spotted when young, prominently glaucous, developing a large central cavity (vs. E. purpureum, with stems usually with anthocyanin concentrated in nodal bands 1–2 cm long, not or only scarcely glaucous, solid or developing a slender central cavity near the base).